Top Tips to Prepare for a Great Scholarship Season
Fall is here, which means scholarship season is fast approaching! You may be anticipating the launch of the new FAFSA, preparing your 2024 applications, planning your spring calendar, and recruiting committee members - but do you have everything in place for a great scholarship season?
At Students First Consulting, we want to take the stress out of scholarship administration and ensure a smooth, student-focused process that lets you focus on the great thing about scholarships: helping students achieve their post-secondary goals. Here are our top tips to prepare for a great–and impactful–scholarship season!
Review your last scholarship season. Celebrate your wins, and make note of any pain points in the process that you’d like to improve upon this year.
Document all the steps of your typical season, from application creation, marketing, committee recruitment and management, selection, payment processing, and more. Share about them with all relevant colleagues. (This will help with Tip 4!)
Make a plan for your season in a way that works for you. It could be calendaring steps, Excel spreadsheets, or big sticky notes - you do you!
Identify your helpers. Who on your staff can support you? Do you need to hire student interns or part-time assistance (or even interim services help from Students First Consulting!) for the season?
Review updates and recent trainings on your scholarship management platform. Are there tools you can use to improve your application? New tricks you should know about to streamline processing?
Review your marketing plan and committee composition. Do these capture the range of students you are hoping to serve? If not, how can you update your marketing plan to reach them and identify committee members who reflect your target student population?
Consider setting up office hours and/or informational webinars for students and families. This can save you time in answering common questions, and help you schedule dedicated time for managing this key piece of the scholarship lifecycle.
Make local connections. This could be with high schools, youth-serving organizations, and/or two- and four-year colleges and universities. They serve similar populations, and share your mission of helping students! These connections can be great for marketing your scholarships, helping you navigate complex questions about student needs and resources available to them, or just for support during a busy season.
Involve your current scholars. Current scholars can help you share about your scholarship opportunities through their social media, serve as committee members (see Tip 6!), and offer both advice for improvement and praise for what’s working well.
Practice self-care and set work-life boundaries. This can be challenging during a season with lots of tasks and perceived urgency (all those calls and emails from students and parents…!). But it’s key to making sure that you don’t feel burnout at the end of the season - and are prepared to jump back into Tip #1, to celebrate your successes!
